Proposal, for an unmade film (set in the future)

'Proposal, for an unmade film (set in the future)' is a 21 minute, 16mm film, funded by London Artists Video and Film Award and produced with the cooperation of the Fundacion César Manrique, Lanzarote.

The film was shot on the island of Lanzarote in the volcanic landscape of the Timonfaya National Park and the ‘retro-futuristic’ architecture of artist César Manrique, using a Bolex clockwork camera. The film implies that it is a by-product of a pre-production process for a low budget science fiction film/architectural documentary, developed this far, abandoned, and only later discovered in an archive. The suggested narrative that emerges from this found footage is that of a visitor attempting to create a paradise on earth – a story influenced by Nick Roeg’s 'The Man Who Fell to Earth' and Augustin Espinosa’s creation myth poem about Sir Lancelot’s visit to Lanzarote – in which volcanic bubbles become time capsules, buildings become space ships and sculptural mobiles become radio antenna.

The film’s structure provides the means for exploring film and architecture through a re-imagining of the interrelationships between idealism and architecture, as well as the means by which architectural space is produced or characterised in film. The film also documents a specific location and convergence of historical and/or narrative themes by developing a complex inter-woven text and sub-text.

• http://vimeo.com/32634909
• http://ellardjohnstone.com